Mystery of The Seros

This is another story I had been working on along with Document C. This one is almost finished (and yes i will finish it unlike Document C.)

It isn't the best thing in the world, its written strictly for entertainment...

They approached the hulking vessel that cast a silhouette on the class B Leviathan U.E.A battle cruiser. The only way to tell that we were
approaching the ship was that the ion engines rattle the cruisers deck less and less until they finally shut off. It was an unknown feeling for most
of the crew, for the engines had not been shut off for years, not since their last visit to earth, which nobody quite remembered when that was.

They finally reached the outer hull of the vessel they had been tracking for weeks. The computers identified it as a class C SEROS research vessel.
It had no tracking number or name that the computer could give, which meant one of two things: It was some secret project by the government that had
been sitting out here, or the computers files were finally corrupted and antiquated enough that they could no longer provide the service needed.

The aging captain ordered the ship to a halt as he inspected the outer hull of the vessel they were about to board. There was rust on the outside,
which meant oxygen was or had once been present on the ship. The “assault team” was lined up in docking bay 1 at air lock 2 awaiting their orders to
board the ship. They knew it was almost time to board when they heard the reverse rockets firing. A personnel support tube or p.s.t as it was called
was extended from the ship to the unknown vessel. The captain came over the intercom wishing them good luck and Godspeed.

The airlock doors opened and the soldiers walked through the clear p.s.t providing them a clear lookout into space. When they reached the door they
found the old locking mechanism to be rusted over and wondered if they would even be able to get the door open. It turned out however that it
unlocked and opened up fine. There was air inside so their was no need to have the visors down on their personal powered armor units.

They walked inside, expecting stale air as usual, however, to their surprise they found the air enriched, like taking a breath of fresh mountain air,
a strange way to put it since hardly any of the crew had ever even seen a mountain or breathed anything other than recycled oxygen.

The ship pulled away it’s umbilical in which the soldiers used for transportation between the ships. The captain watched on his monitor as the
umbilical pulled away. In a few minutes the soldiers would report back what they found and it would be re extended to allow them passage.
The captain waited anxiously for their report.

They had gone aboard several abandoned ships since the Great War had destroyed the government owned battle cruiser and found much loot. The crew knew
their position however, eventually the entire crew would die out and would be yet another remaining vessel to be looted by a future crew of another
ship. That was the way of things, at least, after the Great War it was. Earth had no longer been divided amongst itself, it was unified under one
government, which to most peoples surprise worked amazingly well. Information on the ship’s logs stopped there unfortunately and the actual events of
the war were unknown, only the aftermath.

Once it was certain that there was not threat the soldiers were free to move about the ship and look for salvage.

Fontaine, the name of the soldier who found the box, first told the colonel of the marines about it over his powered armor’s radio system. The box
was a large metal crate and all over it was written the words: CAUTION: DO NOT OPEN. The colonel moved his hand to the metal latch that would release
the seals and open the crate. Fontaine moved his hand over the colonel’s and asked him if it was a good idea to open it.

“Lets see what’s inside, then I’ll decide what’s good for my crew”, with that the colonel shoved Fontaine to the side and opened the latch releasing
the seals. The crate opened automatically all the way open then shut itself again. It was quite empty.

Fontaine looked at the captain giving him a quizzical look. “Did you feel that?” Fontaine asked. “It felt like a gust of wind came out when you
opened it.”

“Forget it, there was nothing in it, lets get a move on.” The colonel said in his raspy voice.

“-There’s nothing here sir” the radio said.
“-Get a hold of the captain, lets clear out and blow this thing, it seems someone else got here before we did.”
“-yes, colonel.”

The colonel looked one last time at Fontaine and noticed the poster of Einstein in the background. He glanced one last time at the poster before
leaving the room and getting a funny feeling in his stomach.

Fontaine followed the colonel to the outside access hatch which they used to enter. The rest of the team was assembled there and Barnes stepped up to
the colonel snapping a quick salute.

“Colonel, I can’t raise the captain on the radio, there seems to be something blocking the signal.”

“From inside the complex?”

“Yes sir.”

“How can that be, I just used it not more than a minute ago.”

“Try and get a fix on what’s blocking the signal, me and Fontaine will go and try the transmitter on the bridge.”

“Yes sir.”

Fontaine and the colonel walked down the metal grid plank across the main decks, then up the stairs. On the way they saw several signs pointing out
that the bridge was on deck C.

So they moved to deck C. On deck C they found crew quarters and the bridge. There wasn’t much left of the bridge, a lot of it had rusted out for
some reason while the rest of the ship remained in good shape except for the outer hull strangely enough.

Once again, Fontaine and the colonel walked back down the stairs across the metal grid and to the awaiting team.

“We tried to get a fix on what was blocking our signals, it seems to be that there is a very large electromagnetic field surrounding most parts of the
ship” “At first I thought it was an old shield generator, but it is much too strong for that, without a doubt, that is what is blocking our
signals.”

Fontaine reached up to scratch his chin, when he noticed he had a stubble of a beard growing there. That’s weird he thought, I just shaved this
morning. Giving no more attention to it, he got back to thinking on their mission.

“sir-“

“Anything worth salvaging?” “Fuel, equipment supplies, anything?” The colonel asked still keeping his mind on the mission while cutting off Barnes.

“Nah, this place was picked clean long before we got here.” Johnson, another marine, said stepping in front of Barnes.

“We gotta figure out how to get a signal to the Maine to get the umbilical across again and get off this pile.” The colonel said.

“No chance of that sir, main power has been down for years.”

“Then how is the electromagnetic shield still operational?”

“Some alternate power source we couldn’t get a lock on.”

“What about a shuttle bay?’

“None, only the docking clamps, which are out of date and service anyway.”

“get back to work then, get me if you come up on something.”

***

It had been over four hours since last contact with his crew still on board the Seros, and the captain was getting impatient. All attempts to get
back inside the Seros had been unsuccessful, the only way was to blast a hole inside the ship. The Seros however was not a battlecruiser and wouldn’t
survive the powerful deck cannons, so that option was taken out of consideration.

“What have the last perimeter scans revealed?”

“Nothing sir, a large object on the opposite side of the Seros, it was presumed to be part of the Seros itself “

“We did a sweep of the Seros and came up with a few interesting things however.” “The ship has a large amount of radiation emanating from its center.
The reason we can’t talk to the marines is due to a large electromagnetic field around the hull of the ship. The radiation could start to seriously
harm the crew if they don’t get out of there soon.”

“How long do they have? “ The captain asked.
“About another four hours before they start getting serious damage.”
“One more thing, as you know, shield systems were experimented with a few years ago and they couldn’t get them to work. I talked to the chief
engineer, and he said that even the deck guns wouldn’t be able to penetrate that shield.”

“Lets check out that object. Half impulse power, reverse.”

The ship slowly moved back as the humming and the rattling of the decks started up again. The umbilical was retracted to the ship, and the Maine was
moving again.

The ship made a slow right, then a left. Then stopped. And the captain stared.

Here it is, the rest of the story, I haven't had much time lately to finish it, but here it is.

The marines didn’t know it, but they had been inside the ship for nearly four hours now and no way to make contact had been established.

The colonel was on the bridge trying to reason his way out of the ship while chunks of hair turned white then slowly fell off of his scalp and to the
grating, which slipped below to the next deck. Fontaine and the rest of the crew were trying to figure out what the purpose of the electromagnet
field was and how to shut it off, so far they hadn’t even found the generator.

Whenever he tried thinking his thoughts always came back to that box he and Fontaine had opened. He remembered it being empty, but whenever he
thought on it seriously, he could remember something else in the box, something invisible to him at the time and gave him chills down his spine.

“Team, how we doin’?”

“Fontaine and I split up and took different teams to try and find the generators.”

“We’re starting to believe that they may both be embedded inside the hull. That could mean trouble for us, since we don’t have any cutting tools, so
I sent another team to try and find some. So far they haven’t found anything.”

“Let me know if any of you come up with something”

The colonel moved back to the room where he and Fontaine had opened the box. There it sat, still closed Einstein on the wall staring at him. He
moved his hand over the seal and opened the box again, this time holding the lid open to get a good look inside. This time, the colonel did notice a
faint cold wind coming from inside the box. The top of his head felt a little cold however as the wind moved past. He removed his glove and touched
the top of his head and noticed that his hair was missing. He was completely bald except for small patches around his head.

“Things keep getting stranger by the moment” he said to himself and moved away from the box. In his peripheral vision he caught the object in his
memories just before the lid shut and would not open again. It was a metal cone shape with rusty wiring all over it, which was the best he could
describe it to himself.

The colonel simply stared at the box after the seeing the object for the first time. The box sat on the table, and Einstein stared, a mournful
expression upon his face it seemed. The box was closed and would not open a third time. That was when the air conditioning cut on. The colonel was
standing under a vent and was blowing heavily upon his head which was rather intensified due to the lack of hair. The colonel felt the top of his
head and for the first time felt the total loss of all of his hair.

“Well sir, we found some tools and we now have the main power back online.” Fontaine said over the suit com system.

“Team two, how are we.”

“We’re having trouble getting a fix on the generators, sorry sir.” Team two responded.

“We may not have much time, the reactor might be leaking on board.” The colonel said feeling his bald head again. Whether or not there was any
radiation on board, they had to get off quickly.

The colonel walked down the hall to Fontaine’s position, when he got there, Fontaine was balding as well, but his hair was also turning gray and faint
lines could be seen around his face, the overall effect of his appearance made him look older.

McCarren, the other soldier with Fontaine also appeared older and worn out than the last they had met.

“Sir, you don’t look so good” Fontaine said on the colonel’s approach “As far as I know about radiation, hair can fall out, but it doesn’t necessarily
make it turn gray does it?”

“What have we got here?” asked the colonel.

“Two plasma cutters and a few other tools, not much but-“

At that point, they all stopped at the clattering on the hull.

“Meteor shower?” “Sounds like one”

A large bang, metal on metal, made them take pause and listen to what was happening to the Seros as the lights flickered on and off after the bang and
the humming coming from around the ship finally stopped.

A humming, not heard in years, started near the bow of the ship as several large pulse cannons took aim at the cruiser. The cruiser, a relic from the
Great war, was a rival ship that had been left over. Though there was probably nobody left on board, they had to be sure it was destroyed.

The deck cannons fired and struck the middle of the cruiser, the weakest point on the ship, and tore it in half. One half raced toward the Seros and
struck it hard, the electromagnetic field flickered a blue and disappeared. After which another blue shockwave emanated from the ship and out into
space.

***

The radio came back to life as the entire crew heard the captain’s hails from their ship. They were saved was their single thought.

“Team, reassemble at the hatch, Captain we are ready to disembark the Seros at your permission.” Called the colonel.

“Happy to oblige” came the answer from the captain over the suits com link.

The team assembled once more at the loading dock upon which they had all entered. The colonel felt as if he could hardly move as he moved forward, if
it were not for his powered armor, he might not have been able to.

“Form up by ran-“

The colonel stopped mid sentence as he looked as his marines, once they had been young men, but now they were old and exhausted. Not a single one was
without a beard or long gray hair and yellow teeth. In fact they were all winded just from running the short distance across the ship.

***

The captain had just received the transmission from the colonel in charge on the Seros. The umbilical was waiting but the door never opened, and the
marines never opened the door. It was at that particular point that the Seros decided to send a repeating signal on all frequencies on the purpose of
the Seros:

Command line 1 followed Date 12/11/2027 after power failures: main reactor, secondary reactor.

Message 1 as follows:

Our research vessel was to discover and unlock the mysteries of time and space. Under U.E.A order 117-nac we were to create a planet encompassing
time cyclone, a weapon that could effectively destroy a planet and its population by means of accelerating time at an exponential degree. We were met
with great success as our first weapon was tested onboard the ship, a mistake that I and the crew will regret. The electromagnetic field can only
contain it’s effects, it did not cancel them out as we suspected. Anything that comes across this device will experience accelerated time and death.
Its range is estimated to be that of over one million light years. Should this installation be destroyed and the weapon activated, it would mean
death to all “current” life in the galaxy. It is now kept in a sealed container, upon which we hope it will never be opened again…

The message went on, however the captain could not read any longer as he developed cataracts at about seventy five years old, then aged to eighty,
ninety, then nothing but a pile of bones on the floor. The human race had created a weapon so horrible, that it spelt certain doom when it was
activated. All life in this galaxy would be dead in a few more seconds. The captain’s last thoughts were how could we be so horrible… when we have
so much to live for…

The only reminder to future generations that the human race had ever existed would be our hulking rusting ships that would remain frozen in time in
space.

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